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Saturday, 7 June 2014

Grayson Perry fabric - what it means to me!

I got some positive comments about the fabric I used for my me-made bra in the last post, so I thought I would talk about it a bit more! This pleases me, because A, I get to ramble on a bit with no particular direction and B, I get to tell you about myself and my likes a bit more!

The fabric that I used was a Grayson Perry print called 'Sissy' that he created in a collaborative project with Liberty's. There was an artists collection released in this year (I believe was 2010, but can't really remember and have done no real research...) that included six of the most prominent contemporary artists at the time. I was completely oblivious to this when I bought it and, although I had heard of Grayson and even admired his 'character', I had not really paid that much attention and certainly had no understanding of him as an artist.

I had recently moved to Reading, was jobless and was invited to London for the day by my (now) mother in law. The only thing on my mind at the time, was that I really wanted to go to Liberty's. It was getting near christmas and I really wanted to buy a couple of glass baubles to put on our first christmas tree. Whilst there I also wanted to pick up some fabric, so when I saw these prints my mind was quite literally blown. Like I said I was jobless, so 1.5 metres at full price was a fair investment to be making at the time.

Roll on a couple of years... Channel 4 showed a really great documentary, presented by Grayson Perry, about class distinction in the UK and how our roles in society are defined by where we live, the objects that we surround ourselves with, the way we dress and socialise etc... It was a fascinating view as to how we all fall (subconsciously) into these working/middle/upper class stereotypes. BTW, middle class is a distinction that applies to alot of people and is divided into many sub-stereotypes in case you were wondering. If you thought that the way you live is unique then think again! Many people around the country are probably mirroring how you live in some way or other, but this is not the point! This TV series inspired me and actually made me fall in love (not literally) with the artist. I googled him and ordered books, read his biography and went onto ebay to see what was around. It was on ebay that I finally joined the dots and connected Grayson Perry with my Liberty fabric and I was so over the moon that the piece of fabric that was so precious to me was also connected to this new fascination.

I actually feel like I own some of his artwork, as all of the characters and symbols are recurrent themes throughout his work. They all symbolise different things, but ultimately link back to him, his childhood, his desire to dress in womens clothes etc... FYI, I actually really like some of his dresses!

Here is a snippet of another print I have stashed away that I bought from ebay last year (photo courtesy of ebay!). I've only got half a metre, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to cut into this piece now.

Grayson Perry has definitely joined my list of totally inspiring creatives and being able to link him with the fabric just enthused me even more and probably placed him higher up that imaginary list. The (now, not so imaginary) list goes as follows:

Picasso - Sublime skill and energy

Elsa Schiaparelli - A couture astist in every sense

Grayson Perry - For his honesty as an artist

Jean Paul Gaultier - For his fabulous sense of humour in fashion. Wasn't he great in Rapido?

Vivienne Westwood - Amazing use of shape and form with an aggressive edge in terms of message or style.

Jaskson Pollock - What can I say? There's something so divine about the colours and the marks!

Look at that list! Going back to Grayson Perry's documentary, you could say that this is very predictable and almost bland in it's obviousness, but these people inspire me every day!